Pleione 2012

[Maren]

...and that's only a quarter of it. And yes, Angie, it took me exactly 28 days, potting from 9-4, non-stop and from 6pm to 11pm preparing the compost: sieving the bark and perlite, chopping the sphagnum moss and mixing it all up.
Just Sunday mornings off to go horse-riding. - Now I'm at a loose end...

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Ready for the flowering stampede ! 

[angie]

Maren, thats brillant and all so neat and tidy. You must show us a picture of them in flower, thats if they aren't all sold before then.

Angie

[Maren]

Look, they're flowering!!!

Na, that was last year. Better pictures later.

[Darren]

That looks wonderful Maren!

Like the others I'm in awe of the amount of work in repotting! I'd decided to only repot my small collection every other year but changed my mind last week after extracting a few bulbs for swaps and discovering the old compost is sheltering lots of woodlice, centipedes and tiny slugs thanks to their being outside in a really wet summer. I worry these will browse on new roots. I can't say I relish the idea of standing in our greenhouse during this cold spell doing the job but needs must.

I'm also a bit surprised at seeing those humilis etc in flower already. Mine have flower buds but are a couple of weeks off flowering yet and the sudden cold weather is not helping.

[Tony Willis]

I can't say I relish the idea of standing in our greenhouse during this cold spell doing the job but needs must.

Darren what is wrong with using the dining room table?

I only have a few and will not be touching them for a couple of months.

[ronm]

Magnificent plants these! Daren't get involved myself, so have to be a voyeur on this thread and admire such wonderful dedication and experience leading to superb quality. Absolutely lovely!

[angie]

Maren, that's a place I could easily spend hours in, even days. What a wonderful sight.

Tony, there is no chance of Darren using the dinning table it will be full of Susan's home work.

Angie 

[Darren]

Maren, that's a place I could easily spend hours in, even days. What a wonderful sight.

Tony, there is no chance of Darren using the dinning table it will be full of Susan's home work.

Angie 

My word Angie - you can see into our house and we don't even have a webcam!!!!

[Darren]

I can't say I relish the idea of standing in our greenhouse during this cold spell doing the job but needs must.

I only have a few and will not be touching them for a couple of months.

I'd like to get it done in the next few weeks as I've been approached by several people asking if I'm going to be selling surplus Pleione at the Blackpool show again this year. I wasn't, but if I've got some potted I might as well. The interest is really in species and I'm only going to have hybrids to spare but I'll give it a go. The 50+ pots I donated to the members stall last year all sold out within an hour and long before the doors opened to the public - making a tidy sum for the group

Also - those tiny slugs have been excavating holes in some of the pseudobulbs so I want the plants in fresh compost ASAP!

[Sempervivum]

The first one to flower with me this year is Pln. Kohala:



Edit: Unfortunately uploading the photo as an attachment didn't work. Why is this?

[ronm]

What a beauty !!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Looking great, Ulrich.

It has to go on my "wanted" list ! 

My first flowers are a couple of weeks away yet.

[SteveC2]

I thought that my first flowers, Eiger and forrestii were imminent, but last night wiped them out.  Despite my usual parafin heater working as normal, the temperature inside the greenhouse reached minus seven!  Hopefully the bulk of my bulbs which have not yet started into growth will be fine, but these early flower buds turned to mush as it warmed up this afternoon.   Lesson learned the hard way.  Just makes me wonder how cold it was outside?

[Maggi Young]

Crumbs, Steve, that was a really low temp. when you were doing your best with a heater. A nasty surprise indeed and so frustrating when the flowers were so advanced.

The freezing temperatures being recorded around England in this cold spell are real record breakers - I expect there will be a long list of plant casualties. Hard to know what else you might have done to protect your pleiones.